


Don't Be Afraid

by beforeyoustartyourday



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Songfic, Suicide Attempt, Taxi Cab
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-28 21:36:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8463814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beforeyoustartyourday/pseuds/beforeyoustartyourday
Summary: the air begins to feel a little thin.
 Tyler isn't dead. He's afraid.





	

**Author's Note:**

> the one where I extended Taxi Cab into a fanfic.

The air is death, Tyler is breathless and he can't help but feel as though it's his fault.

He doesn't want this, but it is better than staying.

"Don't be afraid," he hears, the voice barely a whisper. "We're going home."

He distantly wonders where he is. 

Tyler can't breathe. The air is death. The air stinks of it. But that can't be right, can it? Maybe he is in hell. He doesn't want hell. 

Claustrophobia has never really been a big fear for Tyler, but thought of being buried alive scares him more than thought of going back. He just wants his mother, he wants his dad, he wants his siblings, he wants Josh. He wants out.

He screams, fingers clawing at the wood above him. Banging, rattling sounds, he pleads at the darkness. Don't hurt me, he says. Don't take me to hell. 

He's screaming himself hoarse, but hearing his voice is almost a relief. The darkness won't let him see. It's okay. It's not okay, but he never had anything that was interesting enough to look at. 

He hits his head on the wood, and he blacks out, and he's glad.

* * *

He hears quiet footsteps. However long he had been in here has sharpened his hearing. 

He swears to himself that he'll stay awake this time. He can't let the darkness take him prisoner, or else he'll fall, tremble, crumple inwardly into his shell. Now he hears the lock rattling against chains, and it's being opened, and he's not sure, should he try to escape physically or mentally? Should he risk pain for freedom?

The footsteps retreat. He can't breathe, can't breathe, his lungs struggling to function, eyes rolling into his head. 

One of the darkness says, "I know the night will turn to gray, the stars will start fading. It's when all the darkness fades away."

He doesn't sound dark. He sounds wistful, hopeful. Tyler could use some hope.

And so Tyler repeats what the whisper told him: "Don't be afraid, we're going home," and he hears soft piano.

It whispers to him, whispers his name. 

Tyler hears drums, fainter than the whisper but steadier than the piano, and he has hope.

He wants to fly away, he wants to die. He wants to be with the whisper until either happens. 

"Why did we save him?" he hears.

"We had to steal him from his fate. He needed to see another day. You know that."

Tyler pushes against the lid, and light floods him. 

"The darkness nearly won," he mumbles to the whisper. His ribs ache, his wrists sting, and his lungs scream, and he finds breath. The air out here is life. He smells forest. He hears the piano and the drums, louder but nowhere. There's three men up front, which makes little sense as he's in what looks like a taxi cab. It's plain; it's beautiful. 

"Don't be afraid," he hears the driver say.

"We're going home," says a passenger, who is busily reading a map.

Tyler sees the lid of his box, a coffin, the fingernail scratches. 

"I am I alive; am I well?" He's scared. "Or am I dreaming, dead?"

The third man turns in his seat, his hair bright blue. Tyler is drawn to him. All three men have brightly dyed hair. The driver has red and the map man has bubblegum-pink. 

"We're driving towards morning. All your blood will be washed away. All you did will be undone."

The world fades into bright light, harsh, unforgiving hospital light. Nevertheless, Tyler smiles. "Don't be afraid," he whispers to himself. "Don't be afraid."

**Author's Note:**

> made simply because i love taxi cab and mental and physical exhaustion leads to writing on the bus


End file.
